Your Guide to Rutgers

Submitted by TrppWlbrnID on

Now that Rutgers has been mentioned to be joining the Big Ten, thought I'd offer a fairly comprehensive guide to Rutgers football tradition, lore, and history all in one post. Sorry if it's a bit long, but at least you have it all in one place.  

You can pretty much summarize Rutgers football and fans this way:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

please no

[edit: not a broken link or pic, just a preview of staring into the abyss that is Rutgers athletics]

formerlyanonymous

June 12th, 2010 at 4:57 PM ^

Aren't all Jersey trash Mets fans anyways? That's much, much worse than Yankees fans.

EDIT: Also, I thought you failed at embedding something. Apparently that's just blank space. Perhaps your joke won't work out well with semi-html-literate readers. Just FYI.

BluePants

June 12th, 2010 at 10:26 PM ^

Not only was that a really obnoxious thing to say, it was a really inaccurate thing to say.  In fact, a majority of sports fans in North Jersey are Yankees fans.  In South Jersey, they're Phillies fans.  

And no New Yorker would say a Mets fan is worse than a Yankees fan.  Mets fans are real fans, rooting for a team that constantly breaks their hearts and loses.  Yankees fans are obnoxious, front running, band-wagoners.  

James Burrill Angell

June 12th, 2010 at 8:47 PM ^

I Think the big goal here is ND and ND won't move as long as the Big East is intact. Whether its Rutgers, UConn, Syracuse, etc. if we want ND we're going to likely have to put an end to the BIg East or at least damage it by taking its best members (or at least best that also make some geographic sense). Whom that is remains to be seen.

I still think this whole Texas thing is a big bluff. Something in my gut tells me the that there are those in the BT that just aren't comfortable spreading the league south into Texas and, would be more comfortable grabbing ND and heading east.

TrppWlbrnID

June 12th, 2010 at 5:22 PM ^

was going to add this all in, but i thought black was more meta.

Rutgers is known as "The Birthplace of College Football"  because in 1869 they played the first intercollegiate football game against Princeton and won 6 runs to 4 runs.  Each team had 25 men on the field at once, they were not allowed to throw the ball and Rutgers was OMG Shirtless because they wore their shirts on their heads as helmets.

Like Nebraska, Rutgers has split a National Championship.  The 1869 one that they split with Princeton.

The College Football Hall of Fame was going to be located in Piscataway near the site of the aforementioned first football game but after several years of funding problems and investigations by both the Attorney Generals of New York and New Jersey, it was set in Ohio.

Rutgers has 5 former players or coaches in the CF HOF, the last of which played center in 1961.

In 2004, Rutgers beat Michigan State then lost to New Hamsphire the next week.

Rutgers has played in a total of 6 bowls.

Rutgers current overall record is 596–589–42 (.502) and the current coach Greg Schiano is 55-55.

maizedandconfused

June 12th, 2010 at 7:49 PM ^

I understand the "score the new york demographic" but lets be honest.

NYC is 8 million people. No way no how does 1 college somehow secure this market.

I think if we raid the big east, we should try and land a basketball team with a decent football team.. no one in the big east will make waves in the big ten as current at least with respect to football talent.

Considering UConn is facing major sanctions, the only teams that slightly resemble this option are in my mind Syracuse Pitt or WVU.

WVU is out due to.. well. Its WVU and academics are not stellar. I think if you scoop both Syracuse and Pitt, you could possibly pull Georgetown for bball and the rest. This lands you a small NYC market along with a major DC market for basketball. Seems like a logical choice in my mind 

bronxblue

June 12th, 2010 at 9:04 PM ^

This makes all the sense in the world, which is why it probably won't happen.  For most sports fans in NYC, the lack of a dominant regional football team means they (a) already are fans of the college they attended or (b) are attached to some college program because of place of birth/tradition/colors/etc.  Just because the BTN is now going to be standard in Jersey and New York does not mean these people are suddenly going to be come Hawkeye fans - they'll watch if they like the matchup, but the total number of eyeballs watching probably won't significantly increase.  There are already stout UM, PSU, Illinois, OSU, etc. fan bases in the New York area, and those numbers won't swell much just because they nab a Syracuse or a Rutgers.



 

exmtroj

June 12th, 2010 at 5:36 PM ^

Please, Dear Lord, don't let Rutgers join this conference. Their fans are awful and classless; I remember how brutal they were to Navy a few years back, screaming obscenities at the players and wishing injury on them.  They're also about as fair-weather, bandwagon as you can get, seeing as how most of them didn't know Rutgers had a team prior to 2006.

WolvinLA2

June 12th, 2010 at 6:21 PM ^

A lot of you are looking at this the wrong way. It's not about how good a team is at football, it's about how much $$$ they'll bring to the table. Jersey has a lot of fans who will be new to the Big Ten if Rutgers joins. Rutgers is also a huge school that attracts a good amount of affluent people. The population of New Jersey is bigger than Maryland or Missouri, without counting the Rutgers fans in NYC.

But if you want to talk football, RU has made it to 5 straight bowls, winning the last 4 in a row. That's better than most of the Big Ten.

exmtroj

June 12th, 2010 at 6:26 PM ^

Dude, I lived in New Jersey/New York from 2004-2009.  No one gives a shit about Rutgers football, they just like to throw the trendy-looking 'R' stickers on their cars every now and then.  Pro sports carries the day on the east coast.  I can understand the argument that the Big Ten network would be picked up by the local carriers and bring millions more to the conference that way, since it would be a part of cable packages in the NY/NJ area, but the fan base for that team is awful.

FingerMustache

June 12th, 2010 at 6:33 PM ^

cosign...iv lived in NJ my entire life. i never watched rutgers, i never liked rutgers. in fact, outside of the kids i know that go/went there, i cant think of a single person who remotely cares about rutgers football.

bronxblue

June 12th, 2010 at 8:55 PM ^

I work with people who graduated from Rutgers in NYC, and none of them care about the school's football team.  Wow, they did a nice rating playing a thursday night game against Louisville a couple of years back.  Beyond that, they have had a hard time registering more than a blip on the national radar.

If The Big 10/12 adds ND, then we can start considering Rutgers, Pitt, etc. to even the numbers out.  Otherwise, I do not want to take on another middling team just because they are available.

WolvinLA2

June 13th, 2010 at 6:24 PM ^

"I can understand the argument that the Big Ten network would be picked up by the local carriers and bring millions more to the conference that way, since it would be a part of cable packages in the NY/NJ area, but the fan base for that team is awful."  You can't discount this point, since this is the major reason for adding any team. 

And saying that Rutgers has no fans doesn't have a lot to back it up.  Rutgers was 42nd in the nation in attendance last fall at over 49k per game.  For comparison sake, this is about a grand per game behind Purdue and Minnesota, and ahead of Indiana and Northwestern.  Once Big Ten teams start coming in, Rutgers would be near the middle of the Big Ten in attendance.

Other notable teams that Rutgers beats in attendance - Big Ten expansion prospects Syracuse, Maryland and UConn, UVa, ASU, Miami (YTM), GT, Colorado, K St., Stanford, Oregon St, BC ... the list goes on.  For a school with a very recently successful football program who rarely sees exciting opponents come into their stadium (and in a conference that traditionally travels poorly) Rutgers fares relatively well. 

http://web1.ncaa.org/mfb/2009/Internet/attendance/FBS_ATTENDANCE.pdf

dahblue

June 12th, 2010 at 6:55 PM ^

There are also lots of people in China, but we should not invite Beijing University into the Big Ten either.  Rutgers is an abomination.  They aren't third place behind Texas and Notre Dame, they are the worst possible school of all those rumored.  

it doesn't matter if they've been to bowl games (as has Central Michigan).  The Big Ten would benefit Rutgers, just as we'd benefit Louisiana Tech, but Rutgers would do nothing but lower our profile and weaken the conference...just as would LaTech.